The former director of human resources at the Federal Emergency Management Agency pleaded guilty Tuesday to negotiating a job for himself at the Gallup Organization while he was supervising Gallup's multimillion-dollar contract with FEMA.

The pot of money funding FEMA's relief efforts
contains $3.6 billion, according to Federal
Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig
Fugate. That includes some funds carried over
from last fiscal year as well as new funding
from the stopgap spending measure approved by
Congress last month.

A federal judge gave his final approval Thursday to a $42.6 million class-action settlement between companies that made and installed government-issued trailers after hurricanes in 2005 and Gulf Coast storm victims who claim they were exposed to hazardous fumes while living in the shelters.

Last year, FEMA ranked 231 out of 241 agencies
in the Best Places to Work
rankings, compiled by the Partnership for
Public
Service. This year the agency took a deep-dive
look at the Employee Viewpoint Survey data to
help explain why workers are so unhappy.

When disaster strikes, various levels of government jump into action. But sometimes, work can be doubled up or logistics can be lost because of a lack of integration with the private sector. Dan Stoneking, the director of the private sector in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Office of External Affairs is working to change that.

This is what the U.S. government imagines would happen if terrorists set off a nuclear bomb just blocks away from the White House: The explosion would destroy everything in every direction within one-half mile. An intense flash would blind drivers on the Beltway miles away. A radioactive cloud would drift toward Baltimore.

Capital region officials cheered the Office of Personnel Management's "shelter-in-place" option for snow emergencies. Having people stay at the office during sudden or extreme snowstorms would lessen gridlock, officials told lawmakers Wednesday. They also urged area workers to know their children's school emergency policies and have backup childcare arrangements in place.

Because of its unprecedented nature of the first EAS test, government officials don't know quite what to expect, the chief of the FCC public safety and homeland security bureau, Jamie Barnett, told the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris.